Conventionally, the legal profession uses depositions to obtain testimony from witnesses that may be used to gather evidence or to support their case during trial. Originally, the deposition was verbal, and a copy of the interaction was transcribed by a court reported to create a written record of the testimony. As technology advanced, in some cases, the deposition was also recorded to preserve the non-verbal responses of the witness.
Today, the verbal testimony is still captured by a court recorder. The court recorded maintains a written record of what is said during the deposition. Today, the non-verbal and/or visual testimony is generally captured separately by a videographer. The videographer typically sets up a camera on the deponent and coordinates with the court recorder to record the entire deposition experience. The videographer typically sets up different video recorders, microphones, and other equipment that must be positioned, maintained, and run independently during the deposition. Given the complexity of the system involved, whenever the record is started or stopped, it is not instantaneous to go on and off record. Instead, the different recording systems must be positioned and individually turned on and off. Configuring and initiating the first session is also immensely time consuming as each of the cameras and microphones need to be individually set up and configured to obtain the proper recorded account. It is also difficult to manage the system when a deponent moves or shifts during the exchange as the videographer must physically adjust one or more cameras to center the video on the deponent. The videographer may therefore become a substantial distraction or time consuming hindrance as they move around the room repositioning and checking various video screens and starting and stopping the various components of the system.